Unhashed Podcast

by Sachi Mihara, Diksha Lyer, Kenzi Watanabe

Season 2

Sreeram Kannan | Founder of EigenLayer : Blockchain Brings Trust to Tech Innovation

Sreeram Kannan, co-founder and CEO of EigenLayer, discusses his journey into Web3, why he left academia to build a blockchain product, and how EigenLayer is solving some of the biggest challenges in the crypto ecosystem. Sreeram's journey into the realm of Web3 began with a deep-seated belief in the power of innovation to drive positive change. He recognized the potential of blockchain technology to democratize innovation and empower individuals to create value without the need for established reputations or access to exclusive resources. This unwavering belief led Sreeram to abandon his academic career and embark on his entrepreneurial journey into the world of crypto.

S2 · E8

Dec 26, 2025

1:00:49

Aniket Jindal | Co-Founder of Biconomy: Building Tools to Make Web3 Accessible to Everyone

Aniket Jindal, Co-founder at Biconomy, delves into the qualities that define successful Web3 founders, the dynamics of bear markets, and the role of community management. He shared his insights into Biconomy's decentralized relay network and tokenomics and the critical significance of user experience (UX) in the blockchain ecosystem. Biconomy is a multi-chain relay infrastructure and transaction network that aims to make Web3 user-friendly, accessible, and affordable. Learn about the challenges of crypto adoption and how Biconomy is simplifying user experiences. Explore the pivotal moments and lessons learned in the startup world, from Polygon adoption to the importance of staying connected with customers.

S2 · E7

Dec 26, 2025

56:51

Beryl Li | Co-Founder of Yield Guild Games: From Games to Guilds - Navigating the Web3 Journey

Beryl Li is the Co-Founder of Yield Guild Games (YGG), the largest decentralized network of gaming guilds. During our chat, we discussed Beryl Li's unique journey into the Web3 space and her contributions to the industry. She shared her insights into the role of guilds in shaping the future of Web3, emphasizing Web3 education and driving the adoption of blockchain tech. We also talked about the significance of native tokens in shaping the decentralized gaming landscape and the art of community management within YGG's vast decentralized network. Primarily focusing on Web3 education & blockchain games, YGG has reshaped the gaming landscape. It caters to an ever-expanding community comprising gamers and blockchain enthusiasts alike. Beryl's leadership shines brightly, earning her well-deserved recognition like a coveted spot in J.P. Morgan's Top 100 Women-Powered Businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. She's also a proud member of the inaugural cohort of Technology Pioneers and Unicorns at the World Economic Forum. Her journey is nothing short of an inspiration, particularly for women-of-color founders in the Web3 sphere.

S2 · E6

Dec 26, 2025

52:30

Ryan Kim | Partner at Hashed: Cracking the Code on Web3 Investments in Asia

We spoke to Ryan Sungho Kim, a Partner at Hashed. He assesses deals from Asia and focuses on applications, corporate finance and enterprise. Previously, Ryan successfully exited his company LOOKET, a mobile solution for SME to Recobell (a Big Data company). Ryan was in charge of the development and planning of recommendation systems in his previous company, and he realized that the data space has many vulnerabilities. This led him to blockchain and ultimately made him co-found Hashed. Founded by a team of serial entrepreneurs and engineers in 2017, Hashed is the preeminent blockchain firm in Asia with a portfolio that spans the globe. We started Hashed because we saw an opportunity for blockchain to not only reinvent the global financial system, but the very fabric of the internet itself. This is one of the most consequential moments in human history — an opportunity to overlay the power of digital networks onto human ones, and to usher in a future where technology empowers individuals, and not the other way around.

S2 · E5

Dec 26, 2025

48:23

Jeff “Jiho” Zirlin | Co-Founder of Axie Infinity: Turning Your Web3 Community into True Evangelists

In this episode of Unhashed Podcast, hosts Kenzi Watanabe, Sachi Mihara, and Diksha Lyer speak to Jiho about his early days in Web3, starting Sky Mavis and Axie Infinity with Trung Nguyen, Tu Doan, Aleksander Larsen, and Andy Ho. Jiho talks about building in the bear market, being “small and unrecognized” yet confident in their founding team, vision, and community. The team wanted to build a Web3 community that would reward those with the technical knowledge and those willing to learn about the technology. He perfectly sums up their founding principle: “Something that can play into childhood nostalgia is going to be a compelling way to educate people on Web3.” Jiho also talks to us about the obstacles the Axie Infinity team faced while building and maintaining their product. One of those was working with the community on expectations around the company’s roadmap as they put out features. In fact, it was one of his biggest learnings: “I think we're always thinking about the intended action that we want to coordinate with the community and the outside world. And how do we ensure that the things that we're launching and saying, that we can actually do that? I think it's more important in Web3… How do you turn your community into your best evangelists? And how do you have them doing the things that are most beneficial and helpful for the network, which benefits everybody? I think an understanding of aligned incentives and different economic models and the cold start problem is something that a lot of Web3 startups have to think about.” Today, Axie Infinity is one of the biggest Play2Earn NFT games in the crypto world. Sky Mavis recently closed a $152 million Series B round eyeing Axie’s expansion, which brings the company valuation to $3 billion. Listen to this episode as Jiho discusses the Play2Earn economy, his responsibilities as Chief Growth Officer at Axie Infinity, and more.

S2 · E4

Dec 26, 2025

53:34

Yat Siu | Co-Founder of Animoca Brands: The North Star of Web3 is Digital Ownership

Yat Siu, Founder of Animoca Brands discusses how he went from learning music to becoming a tech entrepreneur, the ventures he has worked on and launched, his early days in Web3, his advice for Web3 founders, and so much more. Coming from a musician family, Yat Siu was training to be a musician when he wrote software on his Atari ST in the 1980s to read music notations. While his software did not win him any marks with his teachers, he found that others used and appreciated it enough to pay him for it. Soon, Siu would begin working for Atari themselves. He would also go on to work for Silicon Graphics and AT&T. His earliest tech entrepreneurial pursuit was establishing Hong Kong Cybercity (the first free web page and e-mail provider in Asia, later renamed Freenation). His foray into Web3 was, thus, inevitable. In 2014, Siu co-founded Animoca Brands, which now uses blockchain and artificial intelligence to build games and other products. This occurred when Siu and his co-founders understood that NFTs enabled digital ownership of items. In fact, this principle led to Animoca Brands pivoting to blockchain. “It’s a belief and conviction that came on a theory we had, which is ownership. So that’s why we always talked about digital ownership, which eventually became treated as property rights back in 2018. The principle of ownership creates network effects in which people build and compose on top will become so large that it basically becomes unstoppable."

S2 · E3

Dec 26, 2025

1:20:12

Lily Liu | President of The Solana Foundation: Why Blockchain Ecosystems are More Like Cities than Companies

Lily Liu is the President of the Solana Foundation. She is an entrepreneur and investor focused on the cryptocurrency industry. She has a background as a CFO and operating executive in the US, China, and throughout emerging markets. Lily is the Co-Founder of Anagram, and part of the founding team of Osmosis, and an advisor to Brave. Previously, Lily co-founded Earn.com which was acquired by Coinbase in 2018. She believes that blockchain ecosystems are more like cities than companies. “I think trying to operate a blockchain like a company is where things start and end in terms of being successful on Web3.” Tune in to discover Lily's remarkable journey into the crypto space, from initial skepticism to groundbreaking success.

S2 · E2

Dec 26, 2025

1:05:43

Jaynti Kanani | Co-Founder of Polygon: From Underdog to Champion

Polygon is one of crypto's greatest underdog stories if not all of tech. And it all boils down to what makes one of its co-founders, Jaynti “JD” Kanani, a believer in Web3: that all you need is a laptop and an internet connection to build anything. “You don’t need to be out there; put your name or face anywhere. You don’t have to go to Stanford or any big college. You don’t even have to go to school to be in Web3 because I see people in smaller villages from India building on Web3,” says JD. In this episode, JD speaks about getting into Web3, scaling Polygon, and what he expects and would like to see for the future of Web3.

S2 · E1

Dec 26, 2025

53:41

Season 1

Illia Polosukhin | Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol: Scaling an L1 in a Bear Market

In this week’s episode of Unhashed Podcast, Kenzi Watanabe, and Diksha Lyer speak to Illia Polosukhin, the Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol. He discusses NEAR’s creation, what it takes to have true scalability in Web3, and building through a bear market.

S1 · E13

Dec 26, 2025

53:18

Alex Svanevik | Co-Founder of Nansen: From Data Scientist to Web3 Founder

In this epsiode, Alex Svanevik shares his journey from data scientist to Web3 Founder, the business model of Nansen.ai, and how to scale a user-centric product in Web3.

S1 · E12

Dec 26, 2025

48:19

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